The Egyptian money market is awaiting the resolution of several pending issues after the appointment of a new chairperson for the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), such as the financial derivatives market, the Islamic index, the voluntary carbon market, and short selling.
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly appointed Ahmed Abdel Rahman El Sheikh as the new EGX chairperson for a year, starting from 26 August 2023. El Sheikh succeeded Ramy El Dokani, who completed his one-year term.
Daily News Egypt learned that the new EGX chairperson will prioritize the “trading control” file and continue working on the open files according to their importance. He will also study the possibility of developing trading systems to prevent trading from stopping, as happened earlier this year.
Market experts expressed their hopes that the new EGX chairperson will complete the files that the previous administration tried to resolve to develop the market. They also stressed the need to increase promotional tours and cooperation with investment banks inside and outside Egypt to attract more investors and increase trading volumes.
They also called for reducing trading costs, stimulating brokerage firms to market the Egyptian market, attracting more companies to list on the EGX, especially family-sector companies, launching the Islamic index to attract foreign money, and providing more data about short selling.
El Sheikh has a long experience in the financial sector. He was the vice president of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) since last August and the vice chairperson of the EGX in December 2018. He was also a board member of several companies affiliated with the EGX. He worked as the head of the trading supervision sector on the EGX and assistant to the head of the EGX for market affairs.
El Sheikh started his career in 1997 as a supervisor of market operations in the EGX, where he oversaw trading activities. He then moved to the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) in 2006, where he worked as a supervisor of the Central Administration for Monitoring Trading Markets and as an assistant to the vice president of the authority.
In 2013, he returned to the EGX as the head of the membership sector and assistant to the head of the stock exchange for market affairs. He held this position for six years until he was appointed as the vice chairperson of the EGX in December 2018. He was also a board member of several companies affiliated with the EGX, such as Misr Information Dissemination Company and EGIT Technical Services.
In August 2020, he became the vice president of the FRA, where he supervised various financial activities and services. He held this position until last Thursday, when he was appointed as the new EGX chairperson for a year, starting on 26 August 2023.
El Sheikh has a strong academic background in finance and capital markets. He graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Ain Shams University in 1992 and obtained a diploma in investment and financing from the same university. He also obtained a diploma in financial markets and a Master of Business Administration specializing in capital markets from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport.
